1U04. 



THE AMEEIGAN BEE-KEEPER. 



203 



haidsliips of the work, and the illness 

 which followed my exposure in the 

 jungles, to bear." 



1 have never seen the statement 

 attributed by Mr. Hewitt to Mr. Jones, 

 nor, for that matter, coming from any- 

 one else, that it was expected Apis 

 dorsata "would produce lakes of 

 honey," nor have I ever known of any 

 person who seriously entertained the 

 idea of establishing a new breed of 

 bees through crossing Apis dorsata 

 with Italians or any other race of Apis 

 mellifera, the new bee to be called Apis 

 Americana. In the article in Glean- 

 ings for 1892 just quoted, I made the 

 statement that "an effort would be 

 made to produce and test various cross- 

 ess between dorsata and mellifera," 

 and this was followed by the state- 

 ment "if such crosses can be obtained, 

 possibly something more valuable than 

 I either of these bees would result." I 

 ; believe that I made a modest statement 

 in this article of what might possibly 

 result from the inti-oduction of these 

 l)ees into the sub-tropical portions of 

 the United States. These statements 

 were based upon my own practical ex- 

 perience with Apis dorsata in India, 

 land since I was the first practical bee- 

 keeper to go out there and manipulate 

 these bees in their native land, and 

 clear up some of the disputed points 

 , regarding their habits, such as their 

 i alleged wildness under manipulation, 

 I their building their combs horizontally 

 instead of perpendicularly, and the re- 

 markable tendency which was ascribed 

 to them to desert any habitation in 

 which they might be placed, it seemed 

 quite proper that I should be allowed 

 an expression of opinion as to what the 

 possibilities are in connection with this 

 species. Whatever idea, however, Mr. 

 Hewitt or anyone else may entertain 

 concerning these possibilities. I still 

 adhere to- the belief that their final de- 

 termination, otie way or the other, is 

 work well worth undertaking. 



^Ir. Hewitt seems to think that the 

 ^sending of Tunisian ("Punic") bees to 

 i India is something better than import- 

 ing Apis dorsata from India. Very 

 possibly. I will not discuss that at 

 this time. However, since on my jour- 

 ney to India in 1880, I took out colonies 

 of Cyprian and Palestine bees which 

 have since thrived, swarmed, and stor- 

 ed considerable surplus honey, and 

 have not died out. as Mr. Hewitt states 

 regarding all bees other than his pet 

 "Funics," the credit for the introduc- 

 tion of Apis mellifera can easily be 



placed. But hold! Mr. Hewitt says 

 that the I'unic bees belong "to the 

 genus Apis nigra." Ilis use of the 

 expression "genus Apis nigra" betrays 

 his total ignorance regarding zoologi- 

 cal nomenclature. He does not seem 

 to know that the generic name is Apis, 

 which is precisely the same as the gen- 

 eric name of Italian, Black, Cyprian, 

 and all of our races now cultivated in 

 Europe and America. Moreover, he 

 seems to think that he can, because 

 this bee happens to be very black in 

 color, immediately apply to it the speci- 

 fic name nigra, without giving any 

 technical description of the character- 

 istics which distinguish it from other 

 species. Entomologists have never 

 heretofore recognized such a species, 

 and the mere publication of the name 

 would, according to the established! 

 laws of zoological nomenclature, stand 

 for nothing. 



But more astounding statements fol- 

 low. Mr. Hewitt says "these bees are 

 proof against foul-brood." The as- 

 tounding part of this is seen at once 

 when I state that foul-brood is of fre- 

 quent occurrence over the whole area 

 of northern Africa from Egypt west- 

 ward. He follows this by stating that 

 if hives are large enough they will not 

 swarm. They cast numerous swarms 

 in their native land, although the hives 

 are full larger than those used in 

 Cyprus, where the bees swarm less. 

 When I state the fact that I have seen 

 and counted in a colony of these bees 

 preparing to swarm from a native hive 

 in Africa 350 well-developed cells. I 

 believe any practical bee-keeper will be 

 prepared to subscribe to my statement 

 that the size of hive bears the same re- 

 lation, as regards swarming of these 

 bees, that it does to other races. For 

 Mr. Hewitt to write in this day and 

 age, "they are the tamest bees known" 

 argues that he has hardly kept pace 

 with information regarding other 

 races, for in this particular we must 

 yield the palm to the bees of the Cau- 

 casus, in Russia; next to them the 

 Carniolans, from Austria; and even 

 our selected and carefully bred Itali- 

 ans in America are certainly "tamer" 

 bees than Tunisians. When one ap- 

 proaches an apiary of the black bees 

 of northern Africa, he is very likely to 

 be unpleasantly assailed, even at a dis- 

 tance, and at certain seasons it is quite 

 impossible to go near the hives with- 

 out a beeveil. Let me compare this 

 statement with one concerning my 



